FP1 & FP2 - Hungarian GP report: Pirelli

Overnight rain meant that the Cinturato Green intermediate tyre was used to start FP1 at the Hungaroring, with all three slick P Zero compounds – medium, soft and supersoft – seen on track during the rest of the day.

The biggest change to the tight and twisty Hungaroring compared to last year was the brand new track surface. The smoother surface was quite slippery, mainly due to a damp surface in the morning, but as expected it ultimately proved to be faster than the previous asphalt.

As a result, the pole position from 2015 was already beaten in FP1, with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg going fastest of all in FP2 thanks to a time of 1m20.435s. In total, the gap from the hardest tyre nominated (medium) to the softest (supersoft) was just over two seconds, although with the medium tyre hardly used today it’s difficult to make an accurate prediction. The gap between soft and supersoft – the two tyres mainly used in free practice – is in the region of 1.3 seconds: a fact that will be absolutely crucial to formulating the optimal race strategy, together with the effect of tyre degradation.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director

“The teams completed all the due diligence that they needed today, throughout two free practice sessions that were made particularly important because of the new track surface. As expected, it was ‘green’ and slippery to begin with – not helped by the overnight rain – but we’ve seen a considerable improvement in lap times compared to 2015, with last year’s pole time already beaten in FP1. With qualifying being traditionally so crucial to the race result here, the set-up and tyre evaluation work that continues tomorrow will be of vital importance.”